


Colours and planes, laser guns and champagne

by skelebro (aellos)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Tabletop Gaming, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-08-10 17:03:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7853638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aellos/pseuds/skelebro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shiro invites Hunk and Lance to his roleplaying campaign, and it's all fun and games except for how Lance is constantly on the verge of fighting the team warrior in real life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Colours and planes, laser guns and champagne

**Author's Note:**

> Spiralled from a DnD AU to a Voltron-is-their-RP-Campaign AU. They use a mix of Dungeon World rules and Extremely Made Up things. Apologies to anyone who actually knows their way around RPing. Feel free to let me know of any mistakes!
> 
> Thanks to my lovely pal for beta'ing ✧♡✧♡♥” you're the best!

 

“The Galra strides forward, drawing his weapon. What do you do?”

“I lick my lips seductively, and-”

There’s a collective groan.

“Shut the hell up, Lance,” Katie says. “I push Lance out of the way and command my robot to attack!”

Matt scribbles something down with his pencil. “Roll?”

Lance pokes his finger in Katie’s direction. “I don’t think that’s fair! We haven’t tried diplomacy yet, and-”

“Nine,” Katie says loudly.

Matt taps his pencil on his pad of paper. “Your robot flies forward while shooting, managing to clip the Galra around his knees, but the Galra swats it away violently. It falls to the corner and doesn’t get up.”

“I chase after it!” Katie says, somewhat desperately.

Shiro nudges her with his elbow. “No you don’t - I grab your shoulder, propping my arm against you to shoot with the Galra blaster. Uh, I rolled a 10.”

Lance looks down the table to Matt. “I still think we could’ve talked him into switching sides. It worked for me on the last mission and it nearly worked for Allura just then!”

“That’s Allura, Lance,” Hunk says from across the table. “I finally catch up, and yell down as I swing my bayard up to take aim - oh, it’s an 11! Plus 3!”

Keith, sitting between Allura and Hunk, finally looks up from his notes. “I duck under Hunk’s fire and slide forward, slashing at the Galra’s damaged legs. A 5…. Plus 2.”

Matt is pointing at both Shiro and Hunk, trying to keep track of the conversation, his eyes darting to his notes. “Okay. Shiro, your fire hits his right shoulder, forcing him to drop his weapon in agony. As he stumbles backwards, Hunk’s fire catches him across the middle, and he loses his balance. As he falls backwards Keith’s bayard crunches into his right knee, causing him to topple on top of Keith.”

“I haul him off Keith and throw his body onto the pile of minions. I cut off his head,” Allura says cheerfully, rolling a natural 12. Since it’s Hunk and Lance’s first time on a campaign they’re using a modified rule set with only two 6-sided dice; Matt’s the genius who can DM anything, including a campaign with Lance amongst it. Lance is reluctantly impressed, even if he’s ruthless on a failed roll.

“Your sword swings through his fleshy neck easily, blood spurting in a high arc and splattering the ceiling. His body falls back to the ground as you hold his head high for the others to see.”

“Allura throws it to me!” Lance says, rubbing his hands together. Allura rolls her eyes but gives in.

“I throw it to Lance -” she rolls low - “oops?”

Lance can already see Keith smirking. “Shut up, brace-face!”

Keith puts his hands up. “I didn’t say anything. You want to catch the head or not, hot shot?”

“I leap forward and catch the head one handed, swinging it around so the blood hits Keith’s face.”

Keith leans forward. “Oh yeah? Roll for it!”

“I will!” Lance says pettily, throwing the dice so hard one of them falls off the table. He scrambles after it and Keith does too, pushing at him.

“No cheating!” Keith protests, elbow in Lance’s side as they try and peek under the Holts’ lounge.

“Uh, duh,” Lance says, and carefully pulls the dice out. “11 baby!”

Keith groans and pulls himself back to the table.

Katie is grinning. “Oh. Oh this is gonna be so good.”

Matt is looking at Keith with something like sympathy. “You want to roll for defy?”

Keith thumps down into his chair. “No. Just-” he lets out a long sigh. “Just do it.”

Matt pushes up his glasses. “Allura’s throw flies wide, about to fall off the side of the catwalk and into the void. Lance leaps, balancing on the handrail, and catches the-”

“I catch the head, and then I backflip in celebration-”

“And as he does so, the last life off the poor Galra spews forth, thick blood slapping Keith across the face. It drips down his chin, landing on his jacket and toes, making Keith smell like an unholy combination of wet dog, uncooked meat and rancid milk.”

Hunk leans back in his chair. “I honestly feel kind of nauseous right now.”

Katie yawns and Shiro bumps Matt, gesturing sideways. Katie likes to pretend she’s one of the big kids, but they all know she’s got her advanced computer tech class tomorrow at 7 and needs her sleep.

“Okay - so - you all decide that this is the best time to take a break, you’ve got a good lookout spot on the catwalk in the caves. Tally up your XP. How are we feeling about bonds?”

Matt had picked this up from one of the other game mechanics while he was putting the campaign together. At the start they’d all picked a bond or relationship that needed to change or develop. Lance’s was simple - he wanted the respect of the team - but he was still kind of the fool of the party. He hasn’t saved the day yet, though he’s had a couple of cool moments: he’s jumped off a cliff to capture the enchanted bird they were on a quest for and set fire to himself when ambushing an enemy camp. The moment had been ruined slightly when his spacesuit hadn’t turned out as fireproof as he thought, but at least he’d remembered his parachute during the cliff jump. Keith had called him an idiot for the fire thing though, and mostly everyone seemed to think he was kidding around. He was being _creative._ Whatever.

At least his bond was secret; they could decide if they wanted everyone to know or just wing it and tell everyone once it was resolved, and both Keith and Lance haven’t said what theirs are. Lance assumes it means Keith’s is about kicking Lance’s ass or something.

Hunk is carefully erasing his level stats. “Lance did leap in front of me and take a hit. Does that count as repaying his debt?”

Allura’s been playing the longest after Matt and tends to know the best options. Keith’s a weird nerd who knows all the rules, but his decision making is… questionable sometimes. Allura and Matt seem to have a silent conversation before Matt shrugs. “Did it actually save you?”

Lance is staring at Hunk with his best earnest-and-sweaty-desperation face. “Come on Hunk…. That juicy XP……”

Hunk, completely incapable of ever lying, groans. “No, it just meant I tripped over his prone form when I tried to charge forward.”

“Hu-unk!” Lance whines, and leans across to twang Hunk’s special It’s-Roleplaying-Time headband.

Hunk reaches out with his other hand clutching his chest. “I’m so sorry…. Lance…. Forgive me….” Lance slaps the hand away and takes a slice of garlic bread instead.

“Fat chance,” he says, although it comes out muffled and mostly crumbs.

“I’m pretty sure Shiro and I resolved our bond,” Katie says, rewriting her stats.  “He now knows I’m looking for my missing brother and I trust him to help me?”

Matt grins at her and winks. “Sounds good. Allura? Keith?”

Allura cracks her knuckles. “They still don’t really trust me as leader, I don’t think. Next week, maybe.”

Keith slides down in his chair. “Me neither.”

Lance leans up on his hands. “What is your bond aim, anyways? Come on, spill.”

Keith snatches his papers away from Lance’s prying eyes and shoves them towards Matt as he stands. “None of your business. Come on, we should go and stop annoying Katie and Matt.”

“Yada yada yada,” Lance says dismissively, but stands and starts to gather his things. Hunk’s giving him a lift home, thank God. The embarrassment of his Mom coming to pick him up in her Corolla with the giant puppy stickers in the window still hasn’t worn off.

Keith has his own car, which stings just as much the first time he’d seen it. Even Shiro still drives his family car! And Allura rides an honest to God bicycle. Keith’s is a crappy Volvo with dodgy aircon but he _owns a car._ Lance thinks that possibly without the braces he’d also be able to buy alcohol without being carded, which is a true marker of coolness these days. It’s straight up unfair. Keith’s a dweeb who knows the DnD player handbook inside out and he doesn’t even _use his coolness._ He’s got friends at school, Lance is pretty sure, but Keith could probably be on the football or athletics team or join a club and be everyone’s favourite in two seconds flat. But he doesn’t. It’s weird.

“Are we getting McDonald’s?” Lance buzzes as he clambers into the front seat. “You know you want to!”

Hunk groans. He’s a huge food snob, all organic and local produce and all that hoohah, but he also has to bulk for his wrestling tournament next month. Lance knows this is the prime time for Mickey D’s on the way home.

“It’s weird that you know my diet schedule, dude,” Hunk says, but takes the turn off for the golden arches. Lance punches him in the shoulder.

“Ow! Driving here!”

Lance sits back. “You know I gotta grow my wrestleboy big and strong. Don’t forget you’ve got make-up training tomorrow afternoon, too.”

Hunk just tuts. “I know, I know. You should come some time. Then I can whip your ass in reality.”

“Uhuh, you wish,” Lance mutters, and then makes Hunk buy them McFlurries because Lance knows all of Hunk’s secret weaknesses, even if Hunk would crush him in a physical battle. Hah.

☆☆☆

The seating arrangement was fine-tuned over the first weeks of the campaign. Hunk and Lance had sat together at first, the newcomers to the group, but that had left either Katie or Matt stranded next to Lance, or if he was down the other end, opposite Keith, which turned into a disaster zone pretty quick. Dice _hurt_ when they were thrown hard at your head.

They figured out quickly that Hunk opposite Lance and Shiro next to him kept him nice and boxed in and unable to cause a significant amount of trouble. Lance pretended to be blind to the machinations of it all and just went with the flow. He wasn’t exactly insulted - he knew he could be full on, and anyway, he prefered be able to pull faces at Hunk across the table. The only shame was Keith on the other side of the table as well, in the middle. They’d tried putting him up next to Matt but he wasn’t above peeking at Matt’s notes either, so now he’s trapped between Allura and Hunk.

“I grab Lance by the collar and pull him back,” Keith says. Lance kicks him. At least he’s still close enough for foot-based violence.

“No you don’t, I shove you in front of me as a human shield,” Lance says. Keith kicks him back and Hunk hisses when his shin gets clipped.

Lance ignores Keith and turns to Matt. “I slide to the back and shoot into the air, releasing a ceiling of debris onto the guards.”

Matt rubs his chin. “Nice. Roll for volley.”

Lance actually has a successful roll for once - booyah - and the ceiling collapses onto the guards below.

Allura frowns. “Well, now how are we going to get through to the prisoners?”

“I scramble up and over the debris,” Katie says.

“A Galra leaps up as you reach the peak,” Matt says quickly. Katie swears.

“I dodge!” except - bad roll, she’s a hostage now.

“No!” Katie yells. “We have to save Matt!”

Matt stops squinting and lowers his hand from his ear. “I’m right here, Katie.”

She flaps her hand. “Just upping the drama.”

Hunk takes aim but Shiro holds his hand up as the Galra raises his gun to Katie’s head. “We can’t attack or we’ll just risk Pidge.”

“This blows,” Katie says, crossing her arms and flopping back into her seat.

Keith is tapping his pencil against the desk furiously. When Lance looks at him he stops, clenching the pencil, and frowns.

“I flick my mullet,” Keith says, “and ask the alien if there’s anything we can give them in exchange for Katie. I mean Pidge.”

Hunk turns to look at Keith. “Uh…”

Keith is bright red. “What? Lance isn’t the only one who’s allowed to try diplomacy.”

Matt’s mouth is a thin line. Lance is able to recognise held-back laughter when he sees it. Matt looks at his notes, avoiding eye contact, and says, “You have pretty low charisma stats…. What’s your roll?”

Keith picks up his dice. His personal, special dice, that Lance has got in trouble like five times for trying to use. Lance notices with something jolting inside him that Keith’s hands are shaking.

“I got a ten,” Keith says. The table’s really quiet. Lance can feel something very stupid swelling up inside him about to burst out. He steps on his own foot. Keith looks at Matt.

“The Galra yanks Pidge higher and asks brusquely, ‘what’ve you got?’”

“I, um,” Keith pauses, like he _never_ does. He always knows exactly what he wants to say, especially on a high roll. “I start climbing up the debris. I yell up - no I, uh, lower than that, I say, ‘Maybe we can come to an arrangement.”

“An _arrangement?_ ” Lance says, his voice very high. Keith has never, not once made a romantic insinuation while playing. No sex jokes. No celebrating in the alien bar after an adventure. Nothing. This is - Lance can feel even his face going red, and he never blushes at his _own_ stupid bullshit.

Hunk can’t decide where to look. He’s looking at the ceiling. Lance is watching Hunk instead of watching Keith, because he feels like he might catch on fire from second-hand embarrassment. He never even gets _first-hand_ embarrassment!

Matt’s trying to take it seriously, Lance can tell. “The Galra stares at you in contemplation, lowering his gun-”

Shiro, always cool headed in a crisis, jumps in. “I shoot him in the head in the moment of opportunity -” he rolls, gets a 7.

“You hit him in the shoulder and he drops Pidge, hissing, but he knocks her over the head and leaps towards you!”

Keith is still brick red. “I stab upwards at him from below,” and a high roll, thank God.

There’s a lull as Allura loots the body for gold and tech and Hunk helps Pidge back to the others.

“Hey so,” Lance says. This is where he should shut up, definitely, definitely shouldn’t say - “Are we just gonna ignore how fucking weird that was?”

“Lance!” Shiro admonishes, turning to him with a frown.

“What! Don’t look at me like that! That’s me, in character! That was weird! In universe!”

Keith pushes his paper backwards and forwards. “I meant what I said. Lance, you’re- your character isn’t the only one who can be all,” he blows at his fringe, “sexy and stuff.”

“Uh, yes I am. I mean, yes my character is. Have you seen his stats?” Lance waves his papers in front of Keith. Well, as in front of Keith as he can reach. Hunk is leaning back with a hand on his forehead.

“All charisma, baby! All! That’s why I do it! ‘Cause it makes sense for my character, the sexy rogue! You’re meant to be the asshole warrior!” Lance is aware that he’s yelling too loudly but can’t - he can’t reel it in. He doesn’t know why he’s so angry about this.

“Yeah? Well my asshole warrior can be gay too!” Keith yells as he stands, chair clattering to the floor, and then he’s walking out of the room, his fists clenched and his shoulders hunched up high and tight.

“Oh,” Lance says. “What?”

There’s a frozen moment of silence.

“Seriously. What the fuck,” he says. Everyone else is avoiding looking at him or each other. “Dudes. Am I going crazy.”

Matt drops his face into his hands.

☆☆☆

Lance is kind of rocked by it all. He sees Keith in the corridors at school, but he doesn’t say anything, just nods back when Lance waves. It’s not _that_ unusual; he’d ignored Lance completely the first month when they started playing. It’s eating at Lance though. Keith’s brash and starts fights and they bicker a lot, but he’s not prone to big outbursts like that. It was funny at the time - still is funny, really - but there’s an undercurrent of tension to it that Lance can’t quite figure out.

They pretend like everything is normal the next session. Keith’s reserved, but Lance makes an extra effort to be kind; gifts him some gold and magical items he finds, asks his opinion on stuff. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. Hunk is looking at him like he’s got an extra head, which, like, who knows at this point?

Lance watches Keith closely. His fringe is getting too long; he has to push it out of his eyes when he wants to check his stats. Lance wonders how Keith knows that Lance likes guys. He’d been going out with Jake during the summer, and he supposes that dating the baseball team's star third baseman might be gossip that spreads, but it had been lowkey and they’d broken up not long after school had started. It hadn’t been a secret or anything, but Lance assumed Keith hadn’t known he’d existed before Shiro had invited Hunk and by extension Lance to his RPing group.

Keith’s hands don’t shake on the dice anymore. Lance can’t decide if he’s happy or not.

☆☆☆

Lance sees Keith near the library the next day at school and runs over. “Yo Keith! Hey!”

Keith looks surprised to see him, like he’s been caught out, but he wasn’t gonna be able to avoid Lance forever. Keith shoves his books into his bag quicker, fumbling with the zip.

“Hey,” Lance says again, feeling out of breath. Keith mutters, “sup,” and Lance glances around them to see if he recognises anyone else. There’s a couple of girls looking over curiously and Lance thinks he’s seen them in his English class or something, but that’s it.

“You wanna, like, talk?” he says, taking a step back when Keith stands up to his proper height. Lance notices in the back of his head that he’s still taller. Just.

“What? No,” Keith says. “I’ve got to get to my next class.”

“Dude, you’re on lunch. Come on. I need someone to explain the d20 mechanics anyway, if we’re using that for our next campaign,” Lance wheedles, blatant.

Keith sighs like he’s seen through Lance’s admittedly bad attempt at cover story. “Okay, fine. Let’s go to the hedge, I guess.”

The Hedge isn’t anything fancy; it’s a bunch of scrubby trees and some bushes down next to the gym where anyone skipping class goes to smoke. But there’s some seats and relative privacy, which makes Lance’s heart go all funny and kick around in his chest.

Lance dumps his bag behind the big log that serves for seating. “Forreal though. Are you gonna change your character for the next campaign?”

Keith holds his bag in his lap, fiddling with his zip. “I don’t know. I’ve played with the same character for so long now,” he shrugs, “but it might be good to mix it up.”

Lance takes a breath. “I’m sorry I made you give him a mullet when we started our campaign.”

Keith tugs on his fringe. “I mean. It’s okay. It’s pretty funny, actually.” He smiles. “I was probably pretending to be mad.”

Lance feels like his world is tilting, all the things in his head falling over and tumbling off shelves. “Oh. Okay.”

Keith looks at him out of the side of his eye and puts his bag on the ground. He doesn’t really fiddle or get nervous energy much, not like Lance’s constant knee bouncing or paper shredding, but he rubs his thumb against his opposite wrist in a nervous gesture that hits Lance hard.

“I’m sorry if I weirded everyone out -” he starts, but Lance blurts, “what? No!” and turns sideways on the log to look at him properly.

“It was just a surprise, is all. You’re always so serious when we play, you know? Not that it’s a bad thing!” he says, desperately.

Keith smiles at him. Lance notices that his braces are blue this month.

“I know I can be an asshole,” Keith says. Lance nods without thinking and Keith steps on his foot. Lance shoves him in the shoulder, grunting _ow,_ but Keith doesn’t frown or go red with anger. “You’re just a lot to handle at first.”

“Wow thanks Keith, really loving this heart to heart,” Lance says sarcastically, wondering what he’s waiting to hear. Why he’s here.

Keith looks up at the leaves above them. “I know it was weird of me to make my character do that. I should lose XP points or something.”

Lance snorts. Priorities much? He’s tempted to blurt - well, anything, but he can sense this is like, a real moment for Keith, or something, and this is one of those key moments where Lance has to shut the fuck up and just listen.

“I just wanted to get you back. I know it doesn’t make any sense. It made me so mad how you just came in to the group and became the fun one, you know? You don’t even know half the rules. You’re just really cool. You’ve got lots of friends and you’re good at making jokes and flirting with NPCs and everyone likes your ideas when we’re playing. And when I tried to be friends or work together it just.” He sighs and twists his mouth up frustratedly. “Sorry. This is dumb.”

Lance feels like he’s been hit over the head with a rock. What alternate reality is Keith living in? Everyone thinks Lance is a doofus who can’t take anything seriously. He’s pretty sure the campaign would be way smoother without him to suggest the local alien dive bar as a place to gather intel.

Lance stares at the side of Keith’s head. “Keith, I’m an idiot who never shuts up. And you _like_ that? You think I’m cool? How dumb are you?” Lance is kind of scrambling for solid ground, his words all coming out wrong.

Keith stands up. “I’m sorry for picking on you and I’m sorry for being weird now. I’ll see you on Thursday, okay?” And then he swings his bag over his shoulder and walks up the path back to the real world. Lance sits there for a long time, just Thinking.

What the hell, man.

☆☆☆

“Is it worse having him sit across from you or next to you?” Hunk muses out loud while driving to the Holts’.

“Aw dude, shut up. We’re fine,” Lance says, fiddling with the radio. Lance is pretty sure changing the seating arrangement now would be the end of the campaign forever.

“I’m just saying,” Hunk says, “It’s kind of weird. Having the guy with the crush on you playing on the same campaign.”

Lance sits bolt upright. “I do _not_ have a crush on him,” he splutters, heart thundering.

Hunk looks at him funny. “Uh, I know? But he’s clearly got something in his shrivelled little heart for you. Dunno why.”

“Hey!” Lance yelps. “It’s obvious why! I’m fucking great.”

Hunk is quiet for a while. “Keith’s nice, you know. Once you get past, the - the -”

Lance twists his mouth. “I know. We had a moment down at the Hedge. For like two minutes, but still.”

Lance probably wouldn’t be having this conversation if they weren’t driving in the dark, Hunk stuck at the steering wheel and unable to interrogate him properly.

“You _what?_ I thought you hated him!” Hunk says.

“Not… not really. He’s just fun to rile up, you know. He’s frustrating but,” Lance shrugs, “he’s just Keith.”

Sitting across - well, diagonal - from Keith during the session is definitely is weird. But good weird, maybe? Lance thinks about how Keith could be cool if he wants to be, how he’d just need to start baseball or something. He’d be good at it, too, clearly has a mind for the strategy, looks like he grew up playing sport. But he’s here instead, playing Dungeon Worlds: Space Mission 5k Future with a bunch of nerds. And he thinks Lance is cool? Lance wonders just how differently they really see the world.

Katie’s rubbing her hands together. “Today’s the day, I can feel it in my bones,” she says.

Lance tries not to look too intimidated.

They actually do manage to find Matt this session. He’s in a space pod up a hundred yard tree, but at least they can see him, sort of.

“We could chop down the tree?” Keith says, tapping his fingers on the table.

“I want my brother back alive,” Katie says. Her pencil has become more and more well-chewed the closer they get to rescuing her brother.

Shiro’s going through his notes. “Are we absolutely sure we don’t have a grappling hook _anywhere_?”

Lance snorts. “Ha, no, Keith broke it last week trying to get back up the cliff.”

“That was your fault,” Keith murmurs, scribbling in his notebook, no heat at all. In fact Lance thinks he can see a hint of a smile.

“Can we climb it?” Hunk asks. “Allura could shapeshift, maybe, fly up -”

“Worth a try,” Shiro says, but Allura gets a bad roll and only gets high enough to see Matt’s face clearly before she’s attacked by the local birds and has to flee back to ground.

Lance cracks his knuckles. “Sorry everyone, but it’s time for some Lance charm.”

“You can’t flirt with a tree,” Keith says, frowning at him.

“Oh yeah?” Lance says, leaning forward, chin on his hand. 

“Yeah,” Keith says, frowning, like Lance is seriously about to roll to romance the tree. Hunk looks vaguely terrified next to him.

Lance wasn't actually talking about the tree at first - his plan was to go back and convince the merchants they'd met to lend the party a grappling hook - but Keith is still frowning at him, and never let it be said that Lance backs down from a challenge. Lance shrugs and shakes the dice in two hands as he says, “may as well give it a go.”

“Give _what_ a go?” Shiro asks, but it’s too late, Lance is rolling.

“I lean against the tree and lay my palm on its surface. I compliment it on its beautiful bark,” he says, and the dice clatter to a stop. Natural 12.

Matt takes off his glasses and rubs at his nose. “The tree is extremely flattered,” he sighs, “and since this is the Brechal Planet, renowned for its psychic links amongst all living things, it sends a message back-”

“What!” Keith exclaims.

“Ohhh nooo,” Allura’s leaning back in her chair, laughing.

“It thanks you for your compliment,” Matt says, “and also compliments you on your own lovely, er, bark.”

Lance rubs his hands together. “Now listen here, my beautiful arboreal creature, my friend is currently inconvenienced. I believe he’s attached to one of your upper branches. I was hoping we could catch a ride up to see him, and on the way I can get a proper look at those lovely, lovely leaves of yours that are just teasing me up there-”

“Thaaaat’s enough,” Shiro says. Lance shuts up and rolls. 11! Plus his charisma bonus!

“A vine snakes down from the tree and wraps around you,” Matt says, sounding defeated, “and lifts you into the sky.”

But halfway up the birds attack again, which Lance thinks is entirely unfair.

“Aaaaaaah, save me,” he exclaims, hamming it up a little for the audience. Hunk’s laughing at him but whatever. Lance passed drama classes with flying colours, thanks very much.

Keith sighs. “I’m coming. I grab onto the vines still trailing the ground and haul myself up to where Lance is,” he says, and, thank God, rolls relatively high, although Lance has to do some fancy vine lassoing to get him up to the same branch as him. Keith kills all the birds while Lance yells encouragement, they ride the rest of the way up, Lance pats some pretty looking leaves, and then they lower Matt’s pod to the ground, hurrah hurrah hurrah. It’s all very emotional. Katie even gets real tears in her eyes.

“Teamwork, eh?” Lance says. “Oh, and I flutter the leaves gifted to me from the tree at Keith.”

Keith pretends to puke but grins back at him once he’s finished being dumb. Lance kind of wishes he was sitting next to Keith so he could bump him with his shoulder. Weird. He’s got weird feelings inside him. Urgh.

“My bond is solved,” Keith says, still grinning.

Matt hums. “And what was it?”

Keith looks embarrassed but doesn’t quite blush. “To work together and build trust with the rogue. I think we finally-”

“You asshole!” Lance half-yells, yanking the paper up. “You barely even tried!”

“Hey, you want the XP or not?” Keith says, snatching it back.

“Uh, duh,” Lance says. “But I seem to remember it was _me_ who was nice first, so I should by all rights get _more_ XP-”

“That’s not how bonds work and you know it! And anyway, I saved _you_ from the evil birds!” Keith argues. “What’s yours, anyways?”

Lance sniffs. “Have I gained all your respect? Are you all willing to admit that a character with infinite charisma can be a valuable part of an adventuring party?”

There’s a grumbled yes. Katie waves her hand around. “Thank you for using your magic people powers to seduce a tree and save my brother, and so on, and so forth.”

“Thank you, my fair lady,” Lance allows, and mock bows to her.

“Okay, come on everyone, give me your papers and then get out of my house,” Matt grumbles.

On the way out Lance watches Keith kick a rock on the way to his car and Makes A Decision.

“Hey Keith - wait - sorry, Hunk’s got to go drop some stuff off at his cousin’s on the other side of town to me. Could you give me a lift?”

Keith looks at Lance for a long moment and then over Lance’s shoulder to where Hunk is standing at his driver’s door, doing a bad impression of Acting Natural.

At least Hunk knows how to go along with a lie in the spur of a moment. “Uh, sorry?” he mutters.

Keith pauses for a moment, then smiles, holding his keys in his hands. “We can stop by McDonald’s on the way,” he says, like a secret or an offering.

Lance throws an arm out to where Hunk is still standing. “Sorry old friend, but my heart now belongs to another.”

Hunk sighs and beeps his car lock. “Alas and alack, forever heartbroken I shall be,” he says, not sounding sad at all, and he waves as he drives off.

“Are we actually getting McDonalds?” Lance says excitedly. Keith looks at him through narrowed eyes, like he’s trying to figure something out.

“Just - get in the car, Lance, come on.”

Lance gets in.

“Did you mean what you said,” Keith says, sounding kind of distracted. Lance isn’t sure he likes how he drives. He’s holding onto the armrest after the first turn.

“What said what?” Lance says as they jolt to a stop at a red light.

“About your heart. Uh. Not… are you… Are you and Hunk…” Keith peters out. Lance can’t really see his face right from here. Keith holds up his hand, fingers crossed.

Lance laughs. “Oh, no, ew. Hunk would kill me. Can you imagine?”

“He puts up with a lot,” Keith allows. He slouches in his seat slightly. “You guys seem close.”

“Oh yeah. We’ve been friends since we were kids. Like you and Shiro, right?”

Keith shrugs. Lance has never really got the full story on how Keith and Shiro became friends, let alone part of the same Dungeons and Dragons party.

“Right, I forgot, mysterious,” Lance says. Keith rolls his eyes and parks the car.

“Woah wait, not getting drive-thru?” Lance says, shoving his hands into his pockets as he follows Keith inside. Keith’s spinning his keys on his finger distractedly, glinting in the yellow light of the streetlights. He’s not deliberately rubbing in the I-have-a-car thing. Probably not, at least?

“Going for luxury,” Keith deadpans, and Lance snorts.

Lance gets a quarter pounder and two large fries and a coke. Keith gets a milkshake. Lance slaps his hand away when he tries to steal his fries and then gives in to Keith’s sad face, sliding the box over.

“How’s all the college prep going?” Lance asks. It feels weird to have a normal conversation with Keith. They’ve been at the same high school since freshman, but they’ve only had one or two classes together, and Keith mostly sticks to himself.

Keith shrugs. “My grades are good. I’ve found a couple of good engineering programs I want to apply for, but…” he pauses to dip a fry in his milkshake and Lance stares, horrified. “I don’t know. I hate essay writing. It sucks I can’t just do a test, you know?”

Lance clears his throat. “Uh, sure -” but Keith does it again! Fry in the milkshake! “Listen, not to pry or anything -” Keith pauses, eyes darting up at him through his fringe - “but what in the absolute fuckery are you doing?”

“What?” Keith looks down. “Oh. It’s good. Here, try it,” he says, and pushes his milkshake towards Lance.

Lance stares at Keith. “Remember when we were on the Ullonian planet and you told me to eat the berries?”

Keith grins and nudges the milkshake a little closer. “I promise no damage. Or less than 2HP, at least.”

Lance shakes a fry at him. It feels weird to banter without a simmering rage underneath it all. There’s still something there, fizzing along in his belly but… it’s not rage. “I’ll hold you to your word, Keith, and if not you’re getting a real life mullet, courtesy of yours truly. You need a haircut.”

Keith blows his fringe out of his eyes. “Eat the damn fry, Lance.”

Lance dips the fry and eats it. It’s… okay. Lance chews and ruminates. He likes spending time with Keith. He always had, even when their bickering had an edge to it; risking his life by enraging Keith gets his adrenaline going. Makes him feel alive.

Keith is watching him with his warm eyes, half a smile softening his look of concentration. Keith's always been pretty intense and focused, but it's different having it directed at him so closely. So close up. Keith waiting to see what Lance thinks of fry and milkshake also makes him feel alive, just differently, like something new on the horizon.

Lance dabs his mouth with a stray napkin. “I’d rate it a 6 out of 10. The salt and sugar combination is smart, but the sogginess is a real detriment to the structure of the fry.”

Keith laughs and snatches his milkshake back. “Well, at least I’m safe from any haircuts from you,” he says, and Lance grins back. There’s a lull.

Lance finishes his burger, still thinking. “Hey. I was wondering. You wanna go out some time?”

Keith looks at him suspiciously. “Uh, we are out.”

Lance tuts. “I mean _properly_. Like, on a date.”

Keith goes red. Lance marvels.

“That. I would really like that, actually,” Keith says. “I was going to go to Goblin’s Den on Saturday to look at their Warhammer stuff. If. If you want to come?”

Lance pauses. Keith’s still red, fiddling with his milkshake straw. Lance can’t believe it. He’s having a full-on romantic moment with Keith in a McDonald’s at 11pm at night. Somehow, everything feels right in the world.

“The rave cave? Yeah, I need to buy dice. You know which ones I should get?” he asks, pure bait, but Keith doesn’t even realise, just starts raving about the new frosted glass set they’ve got in stock.

Lance rests his chin on his hands and allows the smile on his face to grow wide. He’s listening - he wouldn’t dare zone out of a conversation with Keith, that’s asking for trouble - but he can’t help be distracted by his own happiness. He knows he probably looks like an idiot, but he’s got Keith in front of him, half a coke left, and the delicious anticipation of a long car ride home of thinking about all the ways to kiss him goodnight.

☆☆☆  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading（人´∀`*）any feedback is welcome!


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